The Midwestern Native Garden. Charlotte Adelman
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Dense clusters of striking inchlong tubular hooded yellow or red (or sometimes both) blooms from April to June. Green fern-like long-lasting leaves. Cultivation: Sun, light shade. Dry or welldrained average garden soil. Native American Note: Some tribes used this plant for love charms.39 Nature Note: The primary pollinators are long-tongued bees, including queen bumblebees and mason bees. Shorttongued bees collect pollen from the flowers.
Wood betony (Pedicularis canadensis)
HOARY PUCCOON. Family: Forget-me-not, Borage (Boraginaceae). Genus: Lithospermum (L. canescens). Height: 6–18 inches. Ornamental Attributes: Dense clusters of bright yellow to deep orange flowers April to June. Gray-green, white-down-covered leaves. Cultivation: Sun. Dry or medium soil. Native American Note: Natives extracted red dye from the roots of this “most famous of the Indian puccoons (dye plants).”40 Nature Note: “Hoary puccoon is the primary nectar source for spring grassland skippers like the cobweb skipper (Hesperia metea),”41 whose hosts are little and big bluestem grasses. It also attracts dusted skipper (Atrytonopsis hianna), which lays her eggs on big bluestem grass and spends the winter there. Hoary puccoon attracts butterflies, longtongued bees, and skippers, including the duskywing skipper (Erynnis spp.) and the common sootywing (Pholisora catullus). Spring-season bee flies, including the giant bee fly (Bombylius major), visit the flowers.
Juvenal’s duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis)
Hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)
Common sootywing (Pholisora catullus)
WILD LUPINE, SUNDIAL LUPINE. Family: Pea/Bean (Fabaceae, Leguminosae). Genus: Lupinus (L. perennis). Height: 2 feet. Ornamental Attributes: This blue alternative to daffodils features spectacular long-lasting fragrant blue-purple flowers April/May to midsummer. Spoke-shaped leaves. Small hairy seedpods. Cultivation: Sun. Tolerates light shade. Well-drained or dry soil. Prefers loose, sandy soil. Note: Threatened in parts of the Midwest. Nature Note: Sole host plant for the endangered Karner blue butterfly (Plebejus Melissa) (p. 16). This butterfly’s eggs remain on its host plant over the winter; disposing of host plants that hold overwintering butterfly eggs kills the eggs. In spring, the larvae are tended by ants attracted by the honey glands and tentacles of the larvae. Dotted mint, spotted beebalm (Monarda fustulosa) (p. 86) is this endangered butterfly’s favorite nectar. For the best Karner blue results, seek out local nurseries that carry wild lupine derived from state or local plants, because research suggests that, “Michigan’s Karner blue butterflies will not lay eggs on Wisconsin’s wild lupine.”42 Wild lupine also hosts yellow butterflies (called sulphurs) and blue butterflies including eastern tailed-blue (Cupido [Everes] comyntas) (p. 34), and west of the Mississippi River, silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus). The adult butterflies seek the nectar. Wild lupine also hosts Persius duskywing (Erynnis persius) and the frosted elfin (Callophrys irus) (p. 112), whose pupae overwinter on their host plant or in leaf litter and which appear as adults in April and May. Wild lupine has been planted as part of Karner blue butterfly conservation efforts, and it seems to be helping them, as well as other endangered butterflies.43 Wild lupine also hosts numerous other species of butterfly throughout the Midwest, including the gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), whose pupae overwinter on the host plants. Blue flowers attract bees, which are blind to red. Bumblebees (p. 18) are lupine’s most effective pollinators. Invasiveness Note: Hybridization with other species, especially Washington lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus)44 and cultivars such as ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Russell’ lupines, is eliminating stands of native wild lupine. This deprives the endangered Karner blue butterfly (and the other endangered butterflies that lay their eggs on wild lupine) of reproduction sites. For information on the Karner Blue Butterfly Conservation Initiative, access: http://www.butterflyrecovery.org/species_profiles/karner_blue/.
Wild lupine (Lupinus perennis)
More Native Alternatives:
BELLWORT, p. 32; TROUT LILIES, p. 30; WILD HYACINTH, p. 52; also see native alternatives to CROCUS, p. 27; HYACINTH, p. 52; and TULIP, p. 74.
Nonnative:
DAME’S ROCKET, WILD PHLOX. Family: Mustard/Cabbage (Brassicaceae, Cruciferae). Genus: Hesperis (H. matronalis). Origin: Europe, Central Asia. Height: 2–3 feet. Ornamental Attributes: Pink, purple, or white flowers May to July that resemble a phlox.45 Long seedpods. Cultivation: Sun/light shade. Medium or moist soil. Vigorous self-seeder. Goes dormant in summer, creating large gaps. Invasiveness Note: Naturalized or invasive in much of the Midwest. “Dame’s rocket was introduced as a garden plant during the Colonial period.”46 It was a popular Midwest garden flower for hundreds of years and still is. In 1992, responsible garden experts called it a “good garden plant.”47 In 1996, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden reported, “A few, like dame’s rocket, right now appear to be only slightly invasive but are on weed experts’ ‘to watch’ lists because it often takes decades for a plant to begin spreading out of control.”48 The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s 2006 Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants showed dame’s rocket as invasive in 11 states, some in the Midwest. USDA Plants identifies this plant as a noxious weed in 46 states. Note: Because dame’s rocket is often included in “wildflower” seed packets, they should not be purchased and if received, should be discarded.
Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis)
Native Alternatives:
WILD BLUE PHLOX, WOODLAND PHLOX. Family: Phlox (Polemoniaceae). Genus: Phlox (P. divaricata). Height: 12–15 inches. Ornamental Attributes: Fragrant showy blue or violet long-blooming flowers April to June. Leaves are green through fall and conceal spaces left by ephemerals. “This little gem is one of the few blue-flowering plants in the woodland. . . . An area filled with Blue Phlox and Wild Geranium in full bloom is truly a photographer’s paradise.”49 Cultivation: Sun/shade. Well-drained average garden soil; PRAIRIE PHLOX, DOWNY PHLOX (P. pilosa). Height: 1–2 feet. Ornamental Attributes: Bright pink flowers May to July. Cultivation: Sun/light shade. Dry or well-drained average garden soil. Also: WILD SWEET WILLIAM (P. maculata). June to September. Full or partial sun. Average garden soil. Note: Some of these Phlox species are endangered or threatened in parts of the Midwest. Nature Note: The Xerces Society recommends Phlox species as nectar plants for adult butterflies. Phlox hosts sphinx moths (Sphingidae), including the dot moth (Gazoryctra wielgusi), hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum